Curse of the Crimson Bonds

Bound in blood, tempered in flame.

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HOUSERULES

All houserules are open for discussion, and if it seems to the group that something isn’t working, or is just stupid, we can change it.

Most, if not all, of Hobson’s houserules stand, such as Cover and Concealment applying a bonus to the Defender’s defenses, rather than a penalty to the attacker. This encourages ownership of seeking cover, IMHO.

Aid Another will now use the updated PHB errata, where instead of beating a DC of 10 to supply aid, you must beat a DC of 10 + half your level. This reflects the need for higher level, more difficult skill checks needing a higher level of skill to be of any benefit. Think about it: in RL yes, you could probably succeed in handing tools and holding a flashlight for your friend while fixing an older car, but if you were to try and help reassemble an F-18 jet engine, you’d need a higher caliber of help. Attack and Defense aid in combat requires no roll, just the sacrifice of a Standard Action.

Halflings have their own language in Dark Sun, consisting of primitive animal noises, clicks, growls, and hand gestures. This reflects the isolated, primitive nature of the halfling homelands in the Ringing Forest.

I’m considering altering Thri-Kreen water needs, to reflect 2e fluff.

Player Character half-giants are known as Goliaths. They are still descendant of the original half-giants created by sorcery eons ago, but are smarter, free-willed and smaller than their cousins to centuries of selective breeding and eugenics. NPC half-giants, or feral half-giants, are the original, Large-sized half-giants, between 10 and 12 feet tall, weighing around 1600lbs. They are muscular in a flabby sort of way, dull-witted, and need direction and instruction in any kind of hierarchy. They still sport the skin patterns of Goliaths, just fainter, and are hairier than goliaths, with the males sporting thick manes of black hair. These are the half-giants more commonly in service to Sorcerer Kings as enforcers, though half-giant troops are often under the command of a Goliath. Feral half giants are statistically similar to ogres, since ogres were wiped out in the Cleansing Wars.

Weapon Breakage: I plan on using the Reckless Breakage rule, wherein if you roll a 1 on an attack, you can choose to reroll, but the weapon breaks after the attack is resolved. I would still like to have some kind of non-player controlled random breakage, but I can’t think of anything just yet, so we’ll leave it be.

Defiling and Tactics: This is less of a houserule and more of a desire. I’d like to keep Meta down when planning tactics in combat. A great deal of 4e occurs in combat, and so ‘m going to try and encourage you to roleplay tactical advice and orders. What happens when the rogue starts yelling across the battlefield on who should move where? The warlord gets pissed. Having your character yell, “Get behind him!”, is way cooler than saying, “you should move to this square because it’s outside my Blast”. IMHO, let’s give it a shot.

This extends to Defiling as well. I don’t know if any of you are planning on playing a Defiling-capable character, but if you are the kind of person who would turn an olive grove into an ashtray and sap your colleagues life force for the chance of doing more damage, chances are you’re not going to care what they think about it. Go ahead. Defile. See what your friends think. Aheh.